1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a recording medium having a computer executable program stored therein.
2. Description of Related Art
Some of typical image processing apparatuses of recent years include a data storage device, such as a hard disk, and are configured to store image data to be processed and image data after image processing, as well as image data that has been received from an external apparatus.
When using such image processing apparatuses, in some cases, it is not preferable that anyone can access the stored image data. Therefore, it has been proposed to provide a function with which a password is set to image data upon sending the image data from an external apparatus, and accessing the data is allowed only when the correct password has been inputted to the image processing apparatus that has received the data.
In addition, it has also been proposed that the password is set to a data storing region on the receiving side, and the storing of the data is allowed only when the correct password is inputted on the sending side.
In the above explained conventional art, when a password is set to data to be transmitted on the sending side, it is not possible to access the transmitted data if the password is not known on the receiving side. Further, when a password is set to a data storing region on the receiving side, if the set password is not known on the sending side, it is not possible to have the transmitted data be stored in the data storing region.
However, if the sending and receiving of the image data always requires a password that has been set on the other side, cumbersome work arises to separately notify the password, which is inconvenient.